User:MtBotany/sandbord

Description
Toxicoscordion paniculatum is a flowering bulb plant that grows 20–70 cm tall when blooming. The bulbs are, 1.8–4 centimeters tall and 1.2–3.5 cm wide wide. The bulbs are made up of and do not clump together. They are covered in a persistent papery coat that is dark brown to black in color.

Most of the leaves spring directly from the base of the plant at soil level (basal leaves), though they have some attached to the lower part of the flowering stem. The lower leaves are larger, 15–40 cm long and just 5–15 mm wide. The leaves surround the stem, a characteristic called by botanists. The leaves are arranged in three groups around the central axis of the plant.

The flowers are densely packed on a panicle, an inflorescence that in this species has at least two branches below the main set of flowers. The total number of flowers and buds ranges from ten to eighty. The flowers are a flattened, very open bell that are white to light yellow-white in color. Each flower has six tepals, the outer three a wide egg shape. The small glands at the base of the tepals is are somewhat heart-shaped and green in color.

The fruit is a dry capsule with three chambers.

Taxonomy
The first scientific description of Toxicoscordion paniculatum was by Thomas Nuttall in 1834 with the name Helonias paniculata. This was followed by proposed moves to Gomphostylis in 1837 and to Zigadenus in 1871. Per Axel Rydberg proposed moving it and several other species to the new genus Toxicoscordion in 1903. This classification was not widely accepted until 2002, when it was resurrected on the basis of genetic evidence.

the classification as Toxicoscordion paniculatum is widely accepted, including by Plants of the World Online, World Flora Online, and the World Plants database. However, it continues to be listed as Zigadenus paniculatus in many other resources like the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS database (PLANTS) and the Flora of North America.

Names
The species name, paniculatum, refers to the flowers being in a panicle. Toxicoscordion paniculatum is known by the common names of "foothill death camas" or "foothill deathcamas" in English.

It is also known less frequently as "panicled death camas", a translation of its scientific name. Related to its habitat it is also called the "foothill death camas". Like many species in the genus, it is also simply called "death camas".

Related to its previous scientific name it is also called "deadly zigadenus". It is also called "sandcorn", "sand corn", or "sand-corn" for the tiny bulbils that surround a parent bulb.

Toxicity
Toxicoscordion paniculatum is infamous for its poisonous qualities in the western United States. All parts of the plant are poisonous, people have even been poisoned by the flowers. However, the most poisonous part is the bulb. Humans that have mistaken the bulbs for those of wild onions or camas and eaten them have been fatally poisoned. Horses and cattle tend to avoid the plant and are therefore less commonly poisoned than sheep.

Range and habitat
Toxicoscordion paniculatum grows in every state of the contiguous United States from the Rocky Mountains westward and into northern Mexico. In the United States it found almost entirely west of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and New Mexico, while growing in a few scattered, isolated populations in Montana. To the west the foothill death camas grows in every county of Utah and Nevada while mainly growing in the southern portion of Idaho. It is found in the drier eastern areas of both Washington state and Oregon. In California it is found in much of the state north of the San Francisco bay, but nearly restricted to the eastern edge in the south and only in the northern parts of Arizona. In Mexico it grows in the states of Chihuahua and Sonora.

Foothill death camas is a widespread, but uncommon species. It is normally found scatted across the, but is sometimes grows in dense colonies. Most often it grows on well drained sites in sandy, gravelly, or rocky soils, but is also found in wet loam or dry clay soils. It is found in open, seasonally dry areas such as in ponderosa pine forests, in small clearings amid lodgepole pines, and on sagebrush steppes. It is generally found at lower elevations than Anticlea elegans.

Traditional uses
Though well aware of the poisonous nature of the plants, indigenous peoples including the Shoshone, Paiute, and Washoe have made use of crushed bulbs as poultices for a range of aliments. Generally used raw, they were used for rheumatism, sprains, limps, neuralgia, toothache, and swellings. They were used interchangeably with that of Toxicoscordion venenosum by the Paiute who called the two species by the same name.

Cultivation
The species is occasionally cultivated for its spring blooming flowers. They are grown in well draining areas that are somewhat wet in the spring. The plants tolerate dry conditions making it preferred as a naturalizing plant in dry climates. Foothill death camas can also be intermingled with other bulb plants in perennial boarder gardens. It is hardy in USDA zones 3b–9b.